Month: January 2016

In my decision to play more in my scrapping and have total fun with it I’ve been getting some products that I’ve been interested in. And it was perfect timing that I got an Email from Um Wow Studio about their stock up and save sale (going on through Friday). So this is all the push I needed to grab a few goodies, especially their stencils.

I love their stencils! Pictured is the diamond confetti and circle confetti. I like them because they are easier to work with due to their size they measure 4×6 which I found to be the easiest most times to manipulate. Some of the bigger stencils are a bit cumbersome. I also like the thickness of these masks, these aren’t paper thin which is great when you are working with different mediums and textures such as various pastes but it isn’t an issue if you want to stamp with them either. Some of the ones I’ve picked up over the years have been thinner and it doesn’t give much depth like I want. Honestly I look at some and say “I could have made that with my cameo” not with this product. These are my go to stencils I absolutely love them. So don’t feel bad trying them out there is a sale

I played a bit with some gesso and water colors as well as chipboard from Um Wow as well. When I see things on sale I’m like OHHH I HAVE THAT and want to get to my table. I see you nodding you do it to. And this is what I ended up with.

I love this.. I love the process of it, I love how it came out, I love all the different textures, I love that I used flowers. And side note I don’t use many flowers on LOs outside of any mixed media LOs I don’t know why maybe I find them too bulky sometimes I dunno. But on mixed media LOs it so easy to plop a few in well because bulk doesn’t matter then.

This LO started off with these cat tails I knew I wanted something about nature which dictated the colors and the picture. I didn’t want anything really heavy in colors or texture or bulk. I used gesso on the cat tails, added some water color, and a little bit of gold glitter and beads I had in my stash. I wanted them to stand out a bit and the glitter helped that.

I layered in some prima flowers chipboard from Oh Darling Crate Paper line and a flair also from Um Wow. Yes they have flair too 🙂 Those dew drops I picked up on a scrapbook group that someone made I just love how they look. A bit of journaling with a title and I was done.

I do love to get messy I think it is great fun if you have been thinking about it just give it a go challenge yourself you may end up surprised at what you can do.

I admit I’m a failed project lifer. I tried to go for it for two years I never get past March in fact I never finish March. I find it overwhelming and a bit of a burden for me. It isn’t that I just don’t love all those completed albums ladies show off. Its just that this mama on single status can’t keep up and still do all the other things I want to do. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a stash of products 🙂 well who doesn’t.

I have decided I needed to dig into that stash and start making pages out of those supplies and when I saw this template by Fiddle Dee Dee Designs I knew it would be perfect to use up a project life kit from Studio Calico I had on hand.

PL kits usually had doilies although I’m not sure why and I usually don’t know what to do with them regardless. And the little shapes in here can easily be a small PL card so I had to go for it and got this.

I know awwww, that boy melts my heart. This was mainly from a studio calico march 2015 PL kit. I cut the bits by either measuring or the flag shapes with my cameo. Easy to import and cut. And I found a use for a doily! I think these colors were perfect on this wood background :swoon: I love wood paper.

And a total bonus that I got my large format printer working so I could add some typed words on this page. I hate my hand writing so I’m so happy I’m back in business with my printer. I think the added cork arrow was a needed touch and I’m very happy with this LO.

As an added note I’m going to share how I finally got my printer to work. I have an Epson R1800 large format printer goodness I’ve had it for at least 10 years. I’m happy with it, although the colors are off when I print in Photo Shop and have yet to find a fix for that. But I can easily print from another program when I need color (elements, pictures, ect or use my other printer). The paper stopped loading into my printer it had trouble grabbing the paper to feed it through. You tube said clean it and it should work, no, there was also a suggestion for nail polish remover and honestly I don’t own any. So In total frustration I grabbed some 3M spray mount and I had a working printer. I sprayed some on my fingers than put some on the rubber feeder. Quick fix and I’m back in printing business.

Some days I need to get messy and this was one of them. I’m felling rather blaah at the moment after being turned down for one too many DTs. I know par for the course many get nos and I need to suck it up and move on. Which is why I needed to get messy today. We all have something that forces us to create because in the end no matter what there is self satisfaction, the perfect remedy.

I chose a One Little Word this year, which is Calm. I normally don’t but the ending of 2015 really brought to the forefront I either need to get some calm in my life or some good medication. So when I saw this digital kit by Little Butterfly Wings I knew I had to do something with it.

Being former digi I honestly see digital kits and I want nothing more than them to be paper. This was one of them so I knew I would have to get my larger format printer working again (I’ll post my fix another day) just so I can get this printed out. The colors, the theme, it was all so…. :exhale: wonderful

I started off backing my paper with some thicker card board so it wouldn’t warp so much. I do have to invest in some water color paper if my desire to keep getting messy comes to fruition. I than played with some masks and gesso just along the edges nothing extreme. I then added some masking tape for texture, beads, and flowers lots of flowers and just had a gesso field day. I had gesso all over my hands it was wonderful. From there it was water color fun! I don’t know why but when I do mixed media I always gravitate towards blue and then I get bothered because it seems so bold. But after I printed, hand cut my elements, and started to position them it didn’t see

From this angle you can make out some of the textures in my LO. I added some string under the definition card, just enough to soften it up a bit. I placed some of the digital elements throughout my layers I had worked in to the LO for texture. It did a nice job of breaking it all up and bringing it together I think.

These digital elements were easy enough to print and cut out by hand that I don’t think I needed to turn on my cameo. Sometimes that turns into more hassle then I want. It gave enough time for my water colors to dry and I had fund with my scissors.

I really love the end result and this will be hung up in my craft room. As a reminder of not only my OLW for the year but also even if there are all nay sayers when it comes to my LOs I have to create what makes me happy and that’s most important.

This is my second LO for the Simple Scrapper DT that I am a part of. Its a great supportive site that gets you scrapping, supplies not only Templates each month, but journlaing prompts (pushes me to document it all) and a great informative community I’m very happy to be part of the team.

This LO was so much fun to do and looking at the finished page it makes me smile. I love when LOs do that to me, because well I scrap for myself 🙂 so to have pleasure from the end result makes me feel like I’ve DONE IT. And it isn’t just the design of this one but documenting a very important aspect of my life as a special needs mama. There are so many worries we tend to have regardless so unlike some other families that I know the “what will happen to my child” isn’t much of a concern for me because of how we raise our children to begin with. They all know he needs more help and that in life he’ll continue to need more support and its just a factor of life for them and they accept it. No “what about meeeee” nope I’m happy to say we don’t raise our kids that way. Whats the biblical passage.. he’s not heavy hes my brother.

A big “awww” hes the sweetest little dude and I love this picture. The youngest of his sisters and the one he could follow behind all day doing everything she does. And she isn’t always the best influence (that would be another LO). I preferred the black and white photo here even though she is dressed to math this wonder line by Crate paper. The BKG was a huge debate for me but I just love these wood grain papers from Ella & Viv (check out scrapbook.com for them). The title was a cameo creation I’ll never go without my cameo. The journaling I hid again even though I actually typed it on the tag.

I added a tassel because the tag looked a bit bare and it did even out the right side of the LO with puffy stickers on the left. I think it all came together perfectly. What do you think?

So its been a few weeks since I have been able to sit at my desk and create. I had the rest of my little family come home (husband and the twins) as well as my brother and his two kids visiting. And because things go as they go in my life mother nature decided we needed to be flooded into our neighborhood for a few days. So all ten of us indoors and the kids going bonkers from boredom. Didn’t stop them from eating though!

So finally I’m able to sit at my desk and play with some goodies from Fiddle Dee Dee Designs. Cheryl has made a change of stores to The Lilypad and with that has come an awesome change to her templates. She has a dressed up more oh so Cheryl type of scrapping, and dressed down I think made just for me 🙂 Look aren’t these lovely

I love the shapes on this collection and wanted to give my cameo a work out as well. One of my resolutions this year is to use my silhouette more. I dug in my stash and came out with this.

We took this family photo as we were about to leave the house and my husband and kids were flying back to Saudi Arabia. I had my neighbor rush out in shorts to take the pic as I couldn’t figure out my timer. And let me tell you this so captures us after three days of run and a few days of flooding. I did want to add journaling, I had to document something about this event in our lives but me and my ugly hand writing I was a bit sneaky about it.

I used a tag which I normally wouldn’t use (I have an issue about “hello” on so many scrapbook things I’ll share that one day) I wrote about our days locked in doors and tucked it under my photo. I think it worked out awesome and I’ve decided to find more creative ways to add my journaling since I’ll never love my writing.

I really love this template the cuts give a great flow to this LO I don’t feel I had to do anything else with this awesome Ombre paper (I foresee a new must have in my stock). Placing the big title below instead of another picture balanced it all out and spoke more to my mostly one photo type of style. If you haven’t used a digital template in your scrapbooking, now is the time folks. Honestly its easy to do and you’ll soon be as addicted to them as I am.

I’m playing along in Paper Issues blog hop, they invited members to tag along with their creative team. The objective to share the top 15 LOs of mine in 2015. In doing this I’ve totally determined I need to set a scrapping goal for 2016 and keep to it.